Original essays about conservation, science, and natural history in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Thin, glowing traces of lightning passed through the skylight above my bed and circumvented my eyelids to etch their way directly onto my brain as I slept. I awoke with an unpleasant start, my first thought being: this can’t be … Read more
After re-learning natural history, an ecologist returns home -- and sees something new.
When leadership means modeling interdependence, not just choosing the right gear
This is an excerpt from an email message sent on July 6 to supporters of mak-‘amham, the Cafe Ohlone. We are reposting it here with permission from the writers. Learn more and support mak-‘amham online at makamham.com horše ṭuuxi hemmenya—good … Read more
This article first appeared in the interdisciplinary journal Parks Stewardship Forum under the title “Coloring Outside the Lines | Connecting the Dots: Why does what and who came before us matter?” Bay Nature is republishing it with permission. Read the … Read more
With five to seven leaves resembling outstretched fingers on the palm of a hand, the blackberry Rubus armeniacus grows from curved, blood-red stalks resembling veins. Sonoma County horticulturalist Luther Burbank acquired the seeds in 1885 from a trader in India, … Read more
Is bad news good news for the Bay and Delta's diminishing flows?
I’m not usually masochistic. But then I spent three months this winter trying to observe extremely elusive short eared owls in a busy park in the inner Bay Area. (I’ll omit the location in order to preserve a semblance of … Read more
On an unseasonably warm November day in a rural neighborhood in the western Sierra Nevada, men with chainsaws patrol a tree thicket that burned three years ago. One man, whose chaps have torn on his right thigh and whose shirt … Read more
It wasn’t until the federal government took away several of my favorite fisheries, and access to my favorite spots, that I fully comprehended what I had previously taken for granted … The ocean is, or was once, a public trust … Read more
Independent, nonprofit environmental journalism connecting people with nature in the San Francisco Bay Area.
